Survivor
by sslalax
Summary: Long DE drabble. Damon sacrifices his life for Jeremy, as Elena helplessly watches a few metres away.


Just a drabble inspired by the new TVD poster, I know it's rubbish and rushed but I can't get this scene out of my head.

Elena watched vigilantly around her. She knew if she emerged from the trees now, the worst would happen and it would be all over in an instant, everything she feared would happen in front of her eyes. She had to wait for the right moment.

She saw Jeremy stood in the centre of the clearing, his hands helplessly by his sides. Bonnie was beside Shane a few metres away, her eyes closed and concentrated with her arms spread, palms facing the ground. Move, Elena. Move. Move. None of them spoke, so she couldn't even get a grasp on what was going on, when to go, what to do. Move.

A million thoughts raced and raced through her fogged mind. Her eyes closed momentarily as she chewed her lower lip. Move. She couldn't face losing her brother, him being hurt. She'd faced too much. How much hurt could she take? Not this. Move. What if Bonnie gets hurt? What if they're both in danger? Move. She thought of her parents, she imagined what they'd say if they were here now. Move, Elena. She'd disappointed them so much... It should have been her. None of this would be happening, none of this would have happened if it was her. No one would be hurting anymore. She lived her life trying to protect the people she loved and in doing so she had destroyed them all. Move.

There was a rustle in the trees a few feet away, her head snapped up and her stomach fluttered when she realised it was Damon. Why was Damon there? What was he doing? Damon strolled, as if it were the most normal situation in the world, to face Shane. The professor's breath caught in his throat, his eyes locked with Damon's in a tense silence. No one moved.

"Now I've had it upto about here," Damon gripped Shane's throat, "with your bullshit, Professor."

"Bonnie," Shane croaked. Bonnie flinched, her eyes yet to open. She bit her lip as tears began to stream down her face, positioning her hands in the direction of Damon.

The raven haired Salvatore collapsed to his knees and groaned with pain, a pain he knew all too well. Elena gripped the ground beneath her as she watched the man she loved writhe in the dirt. Move, Elena.

"You aren't going to ruin this, Damon. I have everything I need, apart from my sacrifice," Shane explained, moving cautiously around him. "I could have had any of you. You all made it so easy, but Jeremy was the easiest to lure, I have to say."

Sacrifice. Elena's eyes widened, a mixture of rage and horror engulfed inside her. She wouldn't let her brother die. Not today, not ever. Move.

_Now._

Elena bolted in Jeremy's direction, only to be slammed to the ground before she reached him. She frowned, rubbing her forehead before she noticed the ring of fire that had formed around Jeremy, not allowing her to go to the only family she had left, the only person who didn't want to fix her, and her best friend. The last pieces of her humanity.

"NO!" She screamed, knowing no one would listen to her. She stood quickly, gritting her teeth. Why was she so helpless, even now as an immortal? It was never enough. She could never save them. "Let them GO!" She didn't want to cry. She didn't want to show how weak she felt, she had to be strong for them.

Shane merely laughed in her direction. Now that Bonnie's focus was on force keeping everyone out of their way, Damon lay on the ground exhausted. All he wanted to do was take Elena home. He wanted to take the pain away. He couldn't let anything happen to her, ever. Even if it meant leaving her. Breaking his promise. He closed his eyes, turning his head towards Shane.

"Use me," he instructed him. Shane raised his eyebrows.

"Damon, no," Elena whispered, dropping her head, tears falling as they pleased.

"It doesn't matter who you use, you said it yourself. You could have had any of us. So use me, don't do this to her. Use me," he told him again, slowly picking himself up, handing himself over.

He's just saying that. Elena tried to convince herself this was one of Damon's cunning plans, he was going to do something. He always did something. They always survived. He wouldn't leave her, she was sure of it, Damon wouldn't give his life for Jeremy, she was sure of that as well. She clenched her fists by her sides, praying for it all to go away. She couldn't do anything.

Shane nodded. "Fair. I wouldn't want to cause more pain that is due so..." He pulled a carefully crafted wooden stake from the bottom of his jeans and carressed it with his hands. "Bonnie, when the sacrifice is done you can drop the spell, I'm sure Elena will want to leave with her brother, maybe even say goodbye to her boyfriend."

Elena tried to shut it out. She couldn't be tormented with this. It would all be over soon, Damon has a plan, he had to have a plan.

Bonnie nodded, her face still stricken with fear and terror. How had they got here? It only seemed like days since they were all normal high school students. Since Elena had a family, a future, a lifetime of decisions to make. Damon was the only one who made her feel okay about her vampirism, and if she got the cure, he was the only one she wanted to make those decisions with. Elena watched helplessly as Damon fell to his knees once more, his back to her. Shane wandered over to Damon, gripping the stake in his left hand looking quietly terrified.

Elena couldn't bear this, doing nothing, standing there. It was torture in itself. Her insides turned to dust as she eyed the stake in Shane's hand, just imagining the next 10 seconds. She gathered all the strength and rage and hurt she had left in her body and made one last plea.

"NO!" She threw herself at the flames once more, but the force sent her flying back again. She crumbled to the ground, pleading on her hands and knees, "Atticus, don't do this," her voice cracked. She didn't need oxygen so why did she feel like she could barely breathe?

It was Damon's voice she heard next. "Close your eyes, Elena," he told her gently. No. No. He was giving up. Why wasn't he fighting? Elena felt like she was heaving concrete, her chest was so heavy. Heavy with the guilt she had carried around for the last 4 years, heavy with the pain she constantly felt.

"No, you listen to me," she choked, "fight, Damon! Fight for me," she was still on her knees, fighting back the overwhelming emotions she felt.

"Close your eyes," he repeated more forcefully. Damon could hear the pain in her voice and it broke him, but he knew he had no choice. The death of her brother would hurt her more, and this way, the sire bond would be broken once and for all. Oh God, what he'd give to be holding her in this moment. He clenched his fists and lowered his head, knowing she would hear his lasts words although they were merely a whisper, "I love you, Elena Gilbert. You're the strongest woman I've ever known, and I love you."

She couldn't hold it back anymore. She sobbed. She sobbed and sobbed, finding it impossible to close her eyes like he asked, she couldn't take them away from the stake in Shane's hand.

"Enough is enough," Shane spoke loudly, raising the stake above his head and steadying his aim.

"I love you," Elena managed to choke out. Damon turned his head and gave her one last look, their eyes locked and Elena stared sorrowfully. He nodded, and his eyes broke away. Elena did it now. She closed her eyes and hoped when she opened them again she would be back in Damon's bed, where she was only a week ago, feeling the happiest she'd ever felt since she turned. But this was it, she clenched her jaw tight as her whole body shook.

Crack. She heard the bones protecting Damon's heart shatter and she knew.

"No," she instinctively bolted towards him now, and there was no force stopping her. Shane had dissappeared, while Bonnie and Jeremy stayed silent in the clearing as Elena gathered Damon's lifeless body into her trembling arms.

She knelt beside him, cradling his head tightly to her chest as her own tears spilled onto his sculpted face. She looked down his body to the bloody stake trapped in his ribcage, angrily ripping it from him before she launched the weapon across the clearing with a groan of rage. Elena quickly turned back into sobs as her hand carressed his cold face, "you promised me, Damon," she tried to form a coherent sentence, with a faint hope that he was somehow still alive. "We always survive. I never even got a chance to love you," she thought about all the oppurtunities she had to show him she cared for him, oppurtunities she didn't take through fear of how everyone else would feel about their relationship. But she loved him, and he deserved her love. "The sire bond is broken, and I still love you. I'm still in love with you, I told you Damon! I still want to grow old with you, I still want forever, with you, you can't leave me, Damon please!" She shook him gently, as if he would just wake.

Damon was gone. She wouldn't get to grow old with him. Just like her father wouldn't walk her down the aisle, and her mother wouldn't sing to her grandchildren, and Jenna wouldn't plan her birthday parties, and Alaric wouldn't give her advice anymore. Because they were gone, too.

She wiped the tears away from her face and slowly planted a desperate kiss on his lifeless lips, before tearing herself away. This was it. She couldn't do it anymore, she was done. She was done pretending everything was okay, she was done hoping and waitingfor a solution. She would find her own solution. For her parents, for Jenna, for Alaric, for everyone she had lost, for Damon.

Elena carefully dragged the Salvatore ring from Damon's finger, and pushed it on her own. Her expression transformed from pain and hurt to determination and rage as she stood. Without warning, Stefan joined them in the clearing, his eyes locked on his brother's quiet body. His eyes glistened with tears and his head dropped as he realised, which only spurred Elena's anger more. "You don't get to cry about this Stefan," she marched towards him.

"Dont you DARE act like you're upset about this! Where were you, Stefan? Too busy with your new girlfriend. All you have done is hurt me, hurt your brother, so don't you dare stand there and act like you care now, get the hell out of here," she hissed.

She was done feeling, she was done watching everyone she loved die around her.

Elena Gilbert was done.

(Also for those waiting on a Transition update, I'm hopefully going to write about 3 chapters and upload them at once, I'm sorry for keeping you guys waiting so long!)


End file.
